Comparison of road to perdition and blade runner movies

Critical Studies Paper: Road to Perdition and Blade Runner

Road to Perdition portrays Tom Hanks as a member of the Irish mob in 1930’s America, traveling with his remaining son to seek revenge for the murder of the rest of his family, while also evading a hired assassin. Blade Runner stars Harrison Ford as a retired cop in the dystopian future of Los Angeles, who is sent to track down fugitive humanoid robots trying to find their creator. These two films both have characters caught in a cat-and-mouse chase, however they contrast in atmosphere, point of view of the characters, and their motivations.

Both movies don’t shy away from showing a sort of harsh reality of a way the world works, whether it’s the dark morals Hank’s mafia live by or the extreme corruption of cities by Tyrell’s monopoly. Perdition, however, deals with a dour underbelly that hides in an otherwise beautiful world. The protagonists drive by beautiful cities and the calm countryside of America that distracts from the impending conflict with the mafia. Blade tries to find the light in the darkness that is blatantly everywhere. The world of Blade is dark and foreboding, with Los Angeles being packed to the brim with building, overcrowded with people, poured on by constant rain, and all overshadowed by Tyrell’s imposing, almost pyramid-like headquarters. These films are both a mirror to each other, except with the set of circumstances flipped in opposite ways.

After his wife and youngest son are murdered by a fellow member of his gang, Michael Sr. drives to Chicago with his oldest son, Michael Jr. to track down and kill him. The murderer happens to be the son of the mob boss, Rooney, and Michael prepares for anything or anyone who would be an obstacle on his quest, including a hired assassin named Maguire bent on hunting him and his son down. Throughout Perdition, Michael thoroughly plans out not only how he and his son will survive, but anticipates having to rob, and even execute, the mob he has worked for a long time. In a way, he is killing a part of his family, but in order to save another. Though Michael is seen killing a certain amount of people in the movie, he still maintains a loving and fatherly disposition. The parallel to Michael in Perdition is Roy Batty from Blade. Roy is also searching for his family, but in order to have a question answered. The bioengineered fugitive, or replicant, is searching for his creator, the founder of the Tyrell Corporation, to find out how to prolong his artificial life. Throughout the movie, Roy never actually kills anyone, save after he has his question answered by Eldon Tyrell, yet he has a threatening vibe to his character, and can manipulate people into giving him the information he wants. Unlike Michael, whom people are able to sympathize with even though he executes a fair amount of people, Roy has no compassion for humanity, though he does not need to kill that many people.

Blade Runner, however, is not shown from the point of view of the hunted, but the hunter. Rick Deckard is a more relatable antithesis to Maguire from Perdition. The law obligates Rick to hunt down the illegal robots and “ retire” them, or put them to death, so even though he is a de jure police officer, he is a de facto bounty hunter. The film establishes Deckard’s relationship with replicants and how he feels about them. He ends up falling in love with a replicant, though one who is not a fugitive, which complicates his morals even further. When Rick does take out some of the fugitives, he certainly feels a sense of guilt, which the movie focuses on more than Roy. After Rick manages to catch up with Roy in the climax, the robot ends up chasing him on the rooftops, and makes him watch as he expires on his own, leaving Rick to only sympathize. Maguire from Perdition, though, is a twisted crime scene photographer that manages to murder people for pleasure under the nose of the law. He is a bounty hunter, but unlike Rick in Blade, he has no feelings for the lives he takes away. He almost fetishizes death when he takes photographs of his victims after he makes sure they are dead. He dishonorably shoots Michael and nearly kills his son after they make it to their beach house in the end. Maguire’s obsession with murder, indifference of the law and dishonor of hunting his recipients makes him the opposite of Rick Deckard and his targets.

In conclusion, these two movies show different perspectives on fugitives and bounty hunters. They reflect on what it means to kill, what qualifies as something that deserves to live, and what honor we have left after terrible actions have been taken out. These noir films are two sides of the same coin, but told from different views and with different characters with carrying motivations.